Equifax Breach Response Turns Dumpster Fire: I cannot recall a previous data breach in which the breached company’s public outreach and response has been so haphazard and ill-conceived as the one coming right now from big-three credit bureau Equifax, which rather clumsily announced Thursday that an intrusion jeopardized Social security numbers and other information on 143 million Americans. KrebsOnSecurity, Septeber 8, 2017

Equifax Breach: 8 Takeaways: After Equifax on Thursday warned that 143 million consumers’ personal details may have been stolen by hackers, criticism of the consumer credit reporting agency – and data broker – has been swift. BankInfoSecurity, September 8, 2017

Cyber Defense

Password Managers: One of the most important steps you can take to protect
yourself online is to use a unique, strong password for every one of your accounts and apps. Unfortunately, it is most likely impossible for you to remember all your different passwords for all your different accounts. This is why so many people reuse the same password. SANS, September 2016

Cyber Defense

Are you an easy hacking target? Cybersecurity tips for small business: Small businesses and self-employed people are big targets for hackers, and the financial implications can be crippling. Gone are the days of thinking “It’ll never happen to us”. A total of 61% of all data breaches this year occurred in businesses with fewer than 1,000 employees, according to the Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report. Estimates vary on how much a breach truly costs, but it can often be millions of pounds. The Guardian, September 8, 2017

The 5 cyber attacks you’re most likely to face: As a consultant, one of the biggest security problems I see is perception: The threats companies think they face are often vastly different than the threats that pose the greatest risk. For example, they hire me to deploy state-of-the-art public key infrastructure (PKI) or an enterprise-wide intrusion detection system when really what they need is better patching. CSO, August 21, 2017

The Fake-News Fallacy:Old fights about radio have lessons for new fights about the Internet: On the evening of October 30, 1938, a seventy-six-year-old millworker in Grover’s Mill, New Jersey, named Bill Dock heard something terrifying on the radio. Aliens had landed just down the road, a newscaster announced, and were rampaging through the countryside. Dock grabbed his double-barrelled shotgun and went out into the night, prepared to face down the invaders. But, after investigating, as a newspaper later reported, he “didn’t see anybody he thought needed shooting.” In fact, he’d been duped by Orson Welles’s radio adaptation of “The War of the Worlds.” Structured as a breaking-news report that detailed the invasion in real time, the broadcast adhered faithfully to the conventions of news radio, complete with elaborate sound effects and impersonations of government officials, with only a few brief warnings through the program that it was fiction. The New Yorker, September 4, 2017

National Cybersecurity

The Cyberlaw Podcast – Stewart Baker interviews Michael Mainelli: In Episode 177, fresh from hiatus, we try to summarize the most interesting cyber stories to break in August. Paul Rosenzweig kicks things off with the Shunning of Kaspersky. I argue that the most significant – though unsupported – claim about Kaspersky is Sen. Shaheen’s assertion that all of the company’s servers are in Russia. If true, that’s certainly an objective reason not to let Kaspersky install sensors in non-Russian computers. The question that remains is how much due process companies like Kaspersky should get. That’s a question unlikely to go away, as DOD is now comprehensively shunning DJI drones, issuing guidance that sounds a lot like Edward Snowden demanding that users uninstall all DJI apps and remove all batteries and storage media. Steptoe Cyberblog, September 5, 2017

The first quantum-cryptographic satellite network will be Chinese: IN THE never-ending arms race between encryptors and eavesdroppers, many of those on the side that is trying to keep messages secret are betting on quantum mechanics, a description of how subatomic particles behave, to come to their aid. In particular, they think a phenomenon called quantum entanglement may provide an unsubvertable way of determining whether or not a message has been intercepted by a third party. Such interception, quantum theory suggests, will necessarily alter the intercepted message in a recognisable way, meaning that the receiver will know it is insecure. This phenomenon depends on the fact, surprising but true, that particles with identical properties which are created simultaneously are entangled in a way that means one cannot have its properties altered without also altering the other, no matter how far apart they are. The Economist, August 31, 2017

Cyber Law

Could CareFirst Data Breach Case Be Headed to Supreme Court?: Could the class action lawsuit filed against CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield after a 2014 cyberattack impacting 1.1 million individuals be the first data breach case headed to the Supreme Court? A recent ruling by a federal court makes that a possibility. BankInfoSecurity, September 8, 2017

Critical Infrastructure

Symantec Report: Hackers found to gain direct operational access to US power grid controls: In an era of hacker attacks on critical infrastructure, even a run-of-the-mill malware infection on an electric utility’s network is enough to raise alarm bells. But the latest collection of power grid penetrations went far deeper: Security firm Symantec is warning that a series of recent hacker attacks not only compromised energy companies in the US and Europe but also resulted in the intruders gaining hands-on access to power grid operations—enough control that they could have induced blackouts on American soil at will. Wired, September 6, 2017

Internet of Things

IoT Security: What’s Plan B?: In August, four US Senators introduced a bill designed to improve Internet of Things (IoT) security. The IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2017 is a modest piece of legislation. It doesn’t regulate the IoT market. It doesn’t single out any industries for particular attention, or force any companies to do anything. It doesn’t even modify the liability laws for embedded software. Companies can continue to sell IoT devices with whatever lousy security they want. SchneierOnSecurity, September 2017

SecureTheVillage Calendar

PIHRA: Information Security Awareness: The Cyber Tsunami!:Citadel’s Kimberly Pease will facilitate a discussion of (i) steps to take to protect a company’s information from hackers and cyber criminals; (ii)tips to protect yourselves as consumers; (iii) understanding who the criminals are and why you are a target; (iv) real stories and scary examples that could happen to you. September 20, 7:30 – 9:30, The City Club

SecureTheVillage: San Fernando Valley-East (Pasadena / Glendale) Cybersecurity Roundtable: The San Fernando Valley-East (Pasadena / Glendale) Cybersecurity Roundtable is designed to support communication and collaboration between C-Suite executives, IT managers, and cybersecurity experts. The San Fernando Valley-East Roundtable is intended for both for-profit and nonprofit organizations. The Roundtable functions as a cross-organizational “learning community” committed to working together to better protect our community from cybercrime. September 28, 7:30 -10AM. Datastream, Glendale.

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Citadel Information Group is a full service integrated information security management / governance firm. We work either consultatively or as part of a client’s senior management team, assisting our clients cost-effectively manage the confidentiality, privacy, integrity and availability of their information. Learn more.